


Thank You For Your Consideration

by regentzilla



Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series, Super Smash Brothers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 01:47:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4810271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regentzilla/pseuds/regentzilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reports of Professor Layton's involvement with the Super Smash Brothers Tournament may or may not be greatly exaggerated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thank You For Your Consideration

"Professor, this is amazing! Are you going to accept?"

Layton had hardly ever seen Luke quite so wound up. He was clutching the letter Layton had received that morning close to his chest with eager hands, bouncing on the balls of his feet and gazing starry-eyed up at Layton, who he would no doubt be hounding about the matter for days to come.

"Well," Layton said, leaning back in his chair and trying very hard to sound undecided one way or the other. "Needless to say, I've never considered myself much of a pugilist." Short as the letter was, it was quite clear that it was an invitation, and that the event it made reference to was some manner of prizefight. He picked up the envelope from his musty desk and turned it over in his hands— no return address. Nothing at all to indicate its origins, in fact, aside from the distinct and minimalist wax seal that Layton had left carefully unbroken. He wondered how it had found its way to his inbox.

“Do you have any ideas yet about the second page?”

"Perhaps. May I have another look at it, Luke?"

Luke thrust the letter forward and craned eagerly over Layton's arm. Layton smoothed the thick paper down against the single clear spot in the midst of the clutter on his desk.

Behind the first page of the letter, folded carefully alongside it in the envelope, there had been a second, much more cryptic page. While the first had been written in plain English— very plain, without any kind of embellishments or fanfare to frame the abrupt invitation— the second was a mess of dark ink, a scrambled map on one side and a haphazard collection of small images on the other, two hands bracketing them on either side of the page. One hand was drawn simply, the other with fingers twisted and bent at strange angles.

"At first glance, it appears to be a fairly simple cipher." He pointed at one of the symbols, a circle with two lines slicing through it and intersecting in the bottom left, thin gaps in the dark ink. "This here is the same symbol pressed into the wax seal. Considering its repetition and placement at the top, I think it's safe to assume it represents either the sender of the letter, or the event to which I've been invited.”

“I think this one must be meant to represent you, Professor,” Luke interjected, reaching forward to point at one of the marks. His finger landed on one that was unmistakably a top hat, a tiny stove pipe with a band around the middle.

Layton hummed and took hold of the brim of his hat, tugging it down his forehead slightly. "I think you may be very right.”

“So then, if that one's you, and this one,” he jabbed at the circular emblem at the top of the page, “is the sender or the event, does that mean the others could be the other competitors?”

“Perhaps... but the inverted Earth, the letters, and the animals in particular may suggest something else. It's difficult to be certain.”

Luke stood up and puffed his chest out proudly, one hand finding the brim of his own hat. “Well then, if there's going to be animals, you'll have to bring me along! You wouldn't want to be without an interpreter!”

Perhaps that was the case. Could the map be the real puzzle, and the page of symbols simply some kind of roster? It was a tantalizing mystery, and Layton had no doubt that whoever sent the letter was playing to his weakness. But, regardless of the itch for a good puzzle building in the back of his mind, the insinuated tournament was enough to give him pause. It certainly wasn't the type of adventure he was accustomed to.

"I'll have to think about it," he said, but Luke jumped and hooted and threw his hands in the air in victory anyway.


End file.
